2002/11/18 by Laurent Eschenauer, Virgil D. Gligor · 3,563 citations
Computer Science · #Computer network #Computer science #Computer security #Cryptographic Implementations and Security #Cryptography #Cryptography and Data Security #Distributed computing #Encryption #Key (lock) #Key distribution #Key distribution in wireless sensor networks #Key management #Keying #Probabilistic logic #Public-key cryptography #Security in Wireless Sensor Networks #Telecommunications #Wireless #Wireless network #Wireless sensor network
paper · doi:10.1145/586110.586117
openalex publication_date 2002/11/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Distributed Sensor Networks (DSNs) are ad-hoc mobile networks that include sensor nodes with limited computation and communication capabilities. DSNs are dynamic in the sense that they allow addition and deletion of sensor nodes after deployment to grow the network or replace failing and unreliable nodes. DSNs may be deployed in hostile areas where communication is monitored and nodes are subject to capture and surreptitious use by an adversary. Hence DSNs require cryptographic protection of communications, sensor-capture detection, key revocation and sensor disabling. In this paper, we present a key-management scheme designed to satisfy both operational and security requirements of DSNs. The scheme includes selective distribution and revocation of keys to sensor nodes as well as node re-keying without substantial computation and communication capabilities. It relies on probabilistic key sharing among the nodes of a random graph and uses simple protocols for shared-key discovery and path-key establishment, and for key revocation, re-keying, and incremental addition of nodes. The security and network connectivity characteristics supported by the key-management scheme are discussed and simulation experiments presented.